A terminal (user equipment (UE)) is situated in a cell of a packet-switching wireless network and, after successful registration in the network, is available for data that is to be transmitted. In order to actually start the data transmission, it is necessary to set up a packet-oriented connection to a data transmission unit situated in the core network (CN) of the wireless network. To accomplish this, the UE sends a connection setup request to the network and thus also indicates the desired quality of service for the connection. This                explicitly involves a quality of service profile, which describes the technical properties of the packet flow on the connection in the form of a parameter set (for example, data throughput, delay during transmission, prioritization); or        implicitly involves the indication of a base profile stored in the network (for example, by subscriber profile), which is also embodied in the form of the above-mentioned parameter set.        
The connection setup request is forwarded via the radio access network (RAN) to the CN where first a check as to the permissibility of the requested quality of service and the selection of the base profile is carried out with the aid of parameters of the subscriber profile. After the connection setup request, together with the quality of service possibly adapted in accordance with the subscriber profile, has been forwarded to the data transmission unit, a new check, possibly accompanied by a reduction in the quality of service, is carried out, taking into account internal criteria and optionally also additional external criteria that are obtained through further signaling of the data transmission unit with external decision or service nodes. Once the quality of service has finally been established, a confirmation of the connection setup request is sent back to the requesting UE via the involved nodes of the core network and radio network. Additional signaling in the RAN is carried out in order to establish the required radio channel to the UE. In this case, the RAN can carry out a new reduction of the quality of service (for example, for lack of resources), so that new signaling of this to the data transmission unit occurs. Once the connection setup has finally been accepted by all of the involved nodes, it is possible to start the data transmission to and from the UE, it being possible to both sequentially and simultaneously transact a plurality of different services via this connection. All of the nodes connected in the data transmission must process the data stream in accordance with the quality of service profile specified by means of the technical transmission parameters.
An example for the use of this method is the “UMTS” 3rd generation wireless network in which the network nodes SGSN (serving GPRS support node) and GGSN (gateway GPRS support node) are involved in the core network and the nodes: radio network controller (RNC); and base station (NodeB), are involved in the RAN. In FIG. 1, the above-described procedure is outlined using the example of UMTS. The above-mentioned external decision/service nodes are not shown in FIG. 1.
By contrast with the current UMTS standard, in which the user data flow through all of the nodes shown, now an optimization is sought such that the SGSN only continues to be involved in the signaling, but not in the transmission of user data. The essential disadvantages of the above-described prior art approach are:                a) The agreement on the quality of service is carried out per connection (in accordance with the “bearer”) instead of per “service flow” (in accordance with the services), as is actually required.        b) Even for this “bearer,” there is no shared understanding between the CN and the RAN with regard to the quality of service properties since the CN and the RAN function independently.        c) In the negotiation of the quality of service profile, many technical parameters must be negotiated, which are of no use or else meaningless to either the desired service in general or the respective nodes involved in the negotiation.        d) The signaling between the involved nodes is very complex due, among other things, to the circumstances discussed in item c) above.        e) Although the UE is registered in the network, additional signaling is still required in order to initiate the data communication.        f) Usually, the components of the CN shown in FIG. 1 are connected to one another by means of a transport network (backbone) that is based on the Internet protocol (IP). It is not possible, however, to compare the quality of service of the bearer installed in the wireless network to that of the transport network nodes.        g) A subsequent change in the quality of service of an already existing connection, for example, when the UE is using other applications/services, essentially requires the same signaling described above.        h) With the parallel use of services among which it is necessary to distinguish with regard to the qualities of service, additional connections must be set up in order to differentiate among the qualities of service (see item a) above). The signaling required for this is comparable to the signaling described above in terms of sequence and complexity.        